18th ride - and new bike!

Today was a big day -- HUGE! -- in my new life as a cyclist. First I did in the early part of the afternoon my longest ride so far, going 12.5 miles in about 1:28. This was a slow pace of about 7 minutes/mile, but still hampered by the old bicycle I was borrowing from Doug. From July 2011 through June 2012 I worked as a transcriptionist at University Hospital - during the last half of 2011 for the Pathology faculty, and doing "History and Gross" reports during early 2012. I really enjoyed the work, and felt I did well at it, but got eased out due to the combination of a numbers squeeze and my lack of seniority. So today I decided to ride a loop to the hospital (following the route I took there most days on the AATA bus), around it, and then home following the route Michelle and I followed after she picked me up each day.

It was not without adventure, but nothing major. In the early part of the ride, after turning right from Lohr Rd. onto Ann Arbor-Saline, I rounded the corner on the sidewalk, and then when the sidewalk ran out and I had to get up onto the pavement, there was about a 3-inch offset from the shoulder up onto the road, and I couldn't negotiate this. The bike slipped sideways, and when I went down, my helmet bounced nicely off the pavement - making me VERY glad I was wearing it. Then later, in the middle part of the (chilly) ride, I experienced the novel sensation of hearing the snowflakes click off the helmet.

After the ride, Doug Tidd contacted me. He had been convinced that, with my plans to do the 25-mile ride on April 28, and the evident enjoyment I had been getting out of cycling, it was time for me to get a new bike to replace the old one he had loaned me. (We had already spoken about this in recent days.) So he took me over to Wheels in Motion on the very eastern side of Ann Arbor (almost in Ypsilanti), a store he patronizes, where the owner DeWight helped us. I test drove (in the back parking lot) and bought a new Trek bike, with which I am very pleased. The only (very minor) downside of it is that, whereas I had assured my daughter and son that they could be sure I would do my best to get a blue bike, the one I got is black. They had a blue one, but Doug successfully talked me out of it. The store personnel were very helpful, repairing my helmet mirror which had broken off during my fall, and reattaching it, and DeWight very kindly offered me a generous discount. So I am very, very pleased with this new acquisition, and am certain that it will make my ride on April 28 much more feasible.

After we left Wheels in Motion and Doug brought me back to my home, he took some pictures of me on the new bike.